ALEXANDER MARKOV, VIOLINIST
Internationally celebrated violinist Alexander Markov has been hailed as one of the world’s most captivating and versatile musicians. Whether performing as a soloist with prestigious orchestras at major concert halls around the world or playing at sports arenas in front of 25 000 people at the NBA game on his gold electric violin, Alexander Markov always makes an instant connection with his audiences.
Lord Yehudi Menuhin has written, “He is without doubt one of the most brilliant and musical of violinists…Alexander Markov will certainly leave his mark on the music lovers of the world and in the annals of the violin virtuosi of our day.”
Awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1987, Markov made his New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 1983. A Gold Medal winner at the Paganini International Violin Competition, he has appeared as a soloist with some of the world's most celebrated orchestras
including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the Montreal Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Markov has performed with such conductors as Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Jesus Medina, Franz Welser-Möst and Ivan Fischer, and has been sharing stages with such luminaries as Martha Argerich and Gulsin Onay.
Alexander Markov’s recent headlining concerts at Carnegie Hall were filled to capacity and his upcoming engagements are scheduled in USA, Europe, Mexico, Russia, Japan, China, the Middle East and South America.
Alexander Markov’s reputation in the 19th-century romantic virtuoso repertoire is second-to-none. One of the few violinists in the world who performs the entire set of the 24 Paganini Caprices in a single recital, he is featured in the internationally acclaimed film about great violinists, “The Art of Violin,” directed by the legendary film director Bruno Monsaingeon. His CD release and the video of the 24 Paganini Caprices, distributed world-wide by Warner Classics International, caused a sensation and became a best-seller.
In 2006, Warner released the long-awaited DVD of the 24 Paganini Caprices and it instantly became one of the best-selling classical DVD’s on Amazon. Many Caprices were posted by fans around the world on YouTube and some clips have over five million hits.
Markov's musical journey goes beyond his work as a classical violin soloist. He has composed numerous rock compositions featuring a unique “gold” six-string electric violin (designed by James V. Remington with whom he also composed an early work “The Rock Concerto”) which is accompanied by an orchestra, choir and a rock group. The vision of the project is to bridge a gap between rock and classical audiences closer together and to attract young people who otherwise never go to a symphony.
Alexander Markov was born in Moscow and studied violin with his father, concert violinist Albert Markov. By the time he was eight years old, he was already appearing as a soloist with orchestras and in double concertos with his father. The father and son team still perform together in duo-program repertoire in concert halls worldwide. Markov emigrated to the U.S. with his parents and received his United States citizenship in 1982.
